Managing an IoT fleet that spans several countries often means juggling several mobile operators, each with its own portal, SIM stock, billing and support process. UK-based CSL Group is betting that customers will pay to have all of that handled in one place, especially as the industry moves to a new eSIM standard for IoT.
CSL, which provides critical connectivity for security, healthcare, utilities and transport systems, has acquired IoTM Solutions, a company whose cloud platform brings SIMs, eSIM profiles and carrier systems from many operators under one roof. The deal was announced in July 2026, and financial terms were not disclosed.
IoTM's platform already manages more than 30 million SIMs, and the company says it is built to onboard over a billion. It integrates natively with more than 20 connectivity management platforms and carrier systems, and connects customers to over a hundred mobile operators. CSL, for its part, manages over 3 million connections of its own.
Why This Deal Is About SGP.32
The timing is tied to a change in how IoT SIMs are managed. SGP.32, the GSMA's eSIM specification for IoT devices, lets companies download, switch and manage operator profiles on devices remotely, without the complex operator-to-operator arrangements that older IoT eSIM approaches required.
That shift gives enterprises far more freedom to change carriers over a device's life. It also introduces a new component, the eSIM IoT remote manager (eIM), which controls which profiles go onto which devices and when. Whoever runs that layer holds a lot of influence over a fleet's connectivity choices, a contest we explored in our piece on the fight over the IoT SIM.
"SGP.32 marks the biggest change in IoT connectivity management since the introduction of eSIM," said Ed Heale, chief executive of CSL Group.
The Problem It Creates
More freedom also means more complexity. A company that can now use profiles from several operators has to manage contracts, profile inventory, data plans, activation and support across all of them. Without a common layer, that work can end up spread across separate portals and spreadsheets.
IoTM's pitch is that its platform provides that common layer, sitting above the operators and their management platforms and presenting a single view of every connection.
"IoTM was created to remove the complexity of managing IoT connectivity across multiple operators, platforms and countries," said Dan Amir, co-founder and chief executive of IoTM Solutions.
The broader SGP.32 ecosystem is still maturing. Vendors have been certifying products against the standard since 2025, with IDEMIA Secure Transactions, for example, announcing SGP.32 certification in April 2025 for its eSIM IoT solution. Large-scale commercial migrations are still in their early stages.
What CSL Brings To The Combination
CSL built its business around connectivity that cannot be allowed to fail: alarm panels, telecare devices, payment terminals and traffic systems. Its best-known product is rSIM, a patented SIM designed to keep devices connected even when a mobile network goes down.
CSL describes rSIM as an autonomous SIM that monitors the network, tests connectivity at set intervals and switches to a backup operator profile if the primary fails, restoring service within seconds. Crucially, the switching logic sits in the SIM itself, so it does not depend on the device's firmware.
Resilience Plus Orchestration
Put together, the two companies cover different layers of the same problem. rSIM handles resilience at the device, switching networks automatically in an outage. IoTM handles orchestration above the network, giving customers one place to manage SIMs, profiles and operators across countries.
For CSL's traditional customers, many of them in the UK security and telecare markets, resilience has become more pressing as older networks shut down. The switch-off of 2G, 3G and copper phone lines is forcing many devices onto new connections, a transition we tracked in our look at devices going dark in the UK.
Part Of A Buy-and-build Strategy
The acquisition continues a buy-and-build approach backed by private equity firm ECI Partners, which has invested in CSL since 2020. For private equity-backed platforms, adding software with recurring revenue and a large installed base is a common way to move beyond hardware and connectivity resale.
IoTM also takes CSL beyond its core markets. A platform connecting more than 100 operators and tens of millions of SIMs gives CSL a route into global enterprise IoT, where companies deploy devices across many countries and need consistent management everywhere.
Where The Competition Is
CSL is entering a crowded field. Mobile operators, IoT connectivity specialists, SIM makers and platform vendors all want to own the eSIM management layer under SGP.32. Some run their own eIM services; others partner with specialists. The attraction is the same for all of them: the company that manages profile switching sits between the enterprise and its choice of operators.
For customers, that competition is likely to be healthy, pushing vendors to support more operators and make switching easier. It also raises practical questions about lock-in, since an orchestration platform can become as hard to leave as a single operator once a large fleet depends on it.
What Enterprises Should Weigh
For companies planning an SGP.32 migration or reviewing multi-operator IoT connectivity, the CSL and IoTM combination highlights a few decisions:
· Whether to manage eSIM profiles directly, through an operator, or through an independent orchestration platform.
· How the platform handles resilience in an outage, not just profile management on paper.
· How many operators and countries it supports natively, and how new ones are added.
· How easy it is to move devices and data away if the business later changes provider.
· Whether existing devices support SGP.32, or whether new hardware will be needed.
The Bottom Line
CSL's purchase of IoTM Solutions pairs device-level resilience with a platform for managing SIMs and eSIM profiles across many operators. The logic is tied closely to SGP.32, which promises to give enterprises far more choice over carriers but also more to manage.
Whether the combined business can turn that into a global position will depend on how quickly SGP.32 adoption picks up and how well CSL competes with operators and platform vendors chasing the same control point in IoT connectivity.
